Hello and welcome to my blog!

I'm Maricel Cruz and I'm a wedding and portrait photographer based out of Chicago, Illinois. This is where I'll share my latest work and maybe a little bit about my life. I hope you enjoy reviewing my work.

My passion is photography first and food comes a VERY close second. Having an "eye" for photography certainly came to me by surprise when I borrowed my brother's camera to take photos of my niece and nephews at a pumpkin farm, which is when I decided to purchase my own camera. I found that I enjoyed photography more than I enjoyed eating my favorite foods... like I said, food is a very close second.

With the support of my amazing family and friends, my photography has evolved from what started out as an obsession to a passion that I am grateful to share with you. I believe my nieces and nephews think I am paparazzi, they seem to run from me when I have my camera in hand. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to feed them good food instead. :)

My nieces and nephews have such a huge impact on why I decided to pick up a camera 6 years ago. Having them to practice on was definitely beneficial to my growth as a photographer. My youngest niece, Ariela, was only 2 when I first started. At first she was a willing participant, however “Titi”...

My friends Anne and Brad welcomed a beautiful baby girl, Ella. She was born at 6 lbs 4 oz and 19.25″ long, a tiny little thing! Tiny and beautiful! This post is late (like all my recent posts this year) but I wanted to show her newborn photos before her 6 month old photos. Enjoy!

I’m VERY late in blogging this little guy, but I figured better late than never. Dayne’s mom and I met through my cousins, where we ended up running into each other at step class in the gym. She was much better at it than me (even pregnant with Dayne!) but I tried my best to...